Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-12-11
CALIFORNIA.
A Prosperous Country in
All Respects.
AN ENGLISH VIEW OF 1T.

What q British Visitor to This
Section Writes Home
/ About Us.
The following letter to u London
paper was written by an English gen.
tleman who had been here: Even a
quick -witted people are sometime 6
slow TO wake to their opportunities.
but whenever the awakening comes
there is no hesitation, and lost time Is
very speedily made up. Our Ameri
can cousins have for years persisted
in gigantic policy OF America for the
Americans, and their boasted area OF
territory has been over and over again
proved to produce all that man, here
below, can desire or need. This GER
tainly implies variety OF soil, climate.
AMI natural wealth; and yet until
now our quick-witted cousins have
not succeeded in producing one large
class of old world products which they
continue none the less to consume in
large quantities. In q latitude and
with Il climate i'll some parts sim lar
to that of Southern Europe, neverthe-
less the United States conspicuous y
failed to produce the wine
and oil of Southern Europe.
Perhaps rye, whiskey and petroleum
sutficed as counter att actions; per-
haps there is undeniable if unex
planned truth in the report that
European vines have not prospered in
the Atlantic States; perhaps the ma
tional attention has been too much
diverted to other things. Ger
tainly the fact remains that for years
no successful attempt has heen made
to make the wide United States self
supplying in the matter of wine,
raisins, currants, olives and other
products of Southern Europe. But
now, and with almost startling sud-
denness, Americans seem to have
awoke to the fact that in California
their nation possesses a Greece, d
Spain, Portugal an Italy, % France
and Germany, all rolled into one
at all events, SO far as grape, orange,
and fruit growing generally are con-
cerncd. No doubt this ava kening is
par ly due to the fact OF the compile
ton OF several lines of railway con-
Meeting California with all parts OF the
States. II is now perfectly ehsy for a
dweller in Virginia or Massachusetts
or Dakota to "trip" in for II fortnight
or 80, and see California ior himself
| But the results have been greater in
| one direction than was ever antici-
tpated. AS all the world knows, the
greater part OF the United States is
found to endure a particularly hard
winter, in spite of its latitude. New
York and Boston are icebound in hard
winter, VIII lie along the same parallel
OF latitude Lisbon, Valencia and Ma
pies hardly know what frost il. There
are but portions of only X out OF the
3S States comprising the Union which
extend to the north OF As deg. lati-
tude, parallel which may be taken
to mark off Southern Europe from
Northern, for it allgns Bordeaux,
l. ons, Turin, Venice, Belgrade and
Bucharest. Blu. in spite of latitude,
| frost binds in lengthy winter the
States by the sea, and is yer more
severe and prolonged in the States
inland, and especially in those further
| to the west, situated on the high
table lands OF the interior. Yet these
| are tue States that have just attracted
population. and their residents-now
because Of some sick member OF the
family, now because OF business, and
now becau-e of pleasure or mere in
quisitioners of enterprise-fromt their
hard winter States find themselves
whiSked in comfortable trains in mid
winter inio the SUI shine and warmth
of California The effect is imme-
date, power nj and lasting. These
residents return to their wintry homes
decil, ily batter by the California
winter su shine.
| But the are other attractions for
the p actlcal American mind. Even
the Bostonian of wealth, who escorts
some consunptive son or daughter
to this Riviera of the States, takes a
shrewd look around to see what may
he done for profit. Some of the ear
| lier arrivals he finds have already
lIokei around to great effect. He
will pr badly visit such place as
Riverside. In the midst of barren
hills and plains he will find pic
turesure and brilliantly green oasis
of al out 6 1000 acres; he will drive for
miles along well-grown avonues OF
cypress and gum, behind Which on
each side OF the drive is one long sue
cess ion of vineyards, orange groves,
and fruit orchards most OF them from
80 to 40 acres in areas,
with substantial, villaiike residences
in their midst. He will be told, as
mere cominonplaces, that crops OF
oranges have netted to the lucky
owner Gl0O to the acre; that raisin
grapes have yielded quite as much ;
that dried fruit and sugared fruit is
becoming specially. He will see at
the railway depot daily trains entirely
composed of fresh-iruit cars, starring
for Chicago and New York and Phil.
adelphia. And in the clean and
prosperous little town he will hear
how land, sold originally for a shill-
ing the acre, irrigated and planted
at cost of from e5 to ESQ, is hard to
buy at e200 the acre.
| And he will find other settlements
springing up on all sides similar to
this: he will see the snow-capped
Sierra Nevada and the dry plains, and
be told that in those mountains is
stored all the water needed to make
those plains fertile as Riverside. lie
will come across vineyards in splendid
order, and he will find tn It especially
in tho last two or three years, men
have learned exactly tue best grapes
t, grow and the cheapest buildings to
put up for the making OF wine.
He can have proof, IL he
will, taat, while in Europe The
vines Weld ut most two to three tons